[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The GreatViews expressed here are not necessarily the views & opinions of ActivistChat.com. Comments are unmoderated. Abusive remarks may be deleted. ActivistChat.com retains the rights to all content/IP info in in this forum and may re-post content elsewhere.

(CNN) -- A powerful earthquake has rocked central Iran, destroying buildings in several villages, killing 181 people and wounding thousands.

Iranian officials told state-run television on Tuesday that 500 people have been injured -- at least 280 in the city of Zarand alone.

The magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck near Zarand in central Iran at 5:55 a.m. local time (0225 GMT).

It sent panicked residents pouring into the streets. Motorcycles were being used to navigate crowded avenues and transport the injured to hospitals.

Some roads have already been washed away by rain, which is expected to get heavier during the day, officials say. A cold night has been forecast.

In Zarand, a city of about 135,000 people in Kerman province, 20 people died and 280 were taken to hospitals, officials said. Rescue crews were en route.

Six of Zarand's outlying villages suffered damage, authorities told state-run television. All of the villages have been contacted, with rescue crews en route.

Video from a village outside of the provincial capital of Kerman showed a number of heavily-damaged structures where walls had collapsed. A line of corpses was covered in blankets.

Helicopters were sent to help transport the injured to Kerman, along with identifying the easiest ways into inaccessible areas.

Initial reports indicate the epicenter of the temblor was located near the villages of Khanouk, Islamabad and Mottaharabad, state television said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of Kerman at a depth of about 26 miles.

Zarand, about 740 kilometers southeast of Tehran, is about 125 miles from Bam, where a 6.6-magnitude quake on December 26, 2003, killed more than 30,000 people, injured another 30,000 and destroyed 85 percent of buildings.

A magnitude 6.4 is classified as a "strong" earthquake by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

However, Zarand is in a more sparsely populated area than Bam.

The Bam earthquake was also much closer to the earth's surface, at a depth of 10 kilometers (six miles).

A deeper earthquake allows "more time for the energy to dissipate, and that means less intense shaking (on the surface)," David Applegate, a senior adviser to the USGS told CNN.

Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr in Tehran contributed to this report_________________JAVID IRAN!

Having visited a number of boards and news sites I’ve yet to see someone questioning the number of deaths. Having learned something from the public outcry as to their utter incompetence and indifference during the Bam earthquake of Dec 2003, the Islamists have every reason to play down the extent of such devastations. The Islamists’ own figures as to the number of dead and injured then should be regarded with some incredulity.

Recently, the significance of the public relations damage incurred by the Bam disaster itself was made all the more significant thanks to CSM, which a year after the disaster, hoping it can rewrite history, described the regime’s response to the victims of Bam as “rapid first response!”

300 millions a year goes to arabs to kill Israelis while Iranians dig loved-one by hand
Feb 23, 2005, 18:01

Rescuers using their bare hands pulled more bodies on Wednesday from the rubble of freezing mountain villages flattened by a powerful earthquake in Iran as mullahs' regime officials warned the death toll could reach 550.

Mullah president, whose government is facing protests from stricken villagers at the delay in aid reaching some of the most devastated areas, said Iran would accept international help if offered, however no mention of why 300 million a year goes to arabs in Felestin and hezbullah in Lebanon to kill Israelis and yet oil-rich Iran have no emergency respond to disasters.

"I have lost 15 or 30 members of my family," cried soldier Hossein Mirzaie who returned to his home village of Houtkan in the mountains of Kerman province after the tragedy struck.

Hundreds of rescue workers and soldiers were searching through the rubble of mud-brick buildings with their hands as blocked roads made it impossible for heavy earthmoving equipment to reach some villages.

Residents who were forced to spend the night outdoors in the freezing cold were burying their dead as snow fell on Wednesday and ambulances were transformed into makeshift hearses.

"The number of victims could reach 550, but we don't think it will go much beyond that," interior minister Abdolvahed Moussavi Lari told journalists.

Whole villages in remote mountain areas were turned to rubble by the force of the earthquake in the southeastern province of Kerman which had a magnitude of 6.4 on the Richter scale and centred on the Zarand district.

As grief turned to anger, residents of Islamabad village in one of the most devastated areas blocked roads in protest at delays in receiving basic supplies such as tents and blankets, after spending the night in freezing cold and rain.

About 10 000 families in 50 villages have been affected by the temblor, the deadliest in Iran since the Bam earthquake of December 2003 that killed more than 30 000 people, said Lari.